Mamma Mia!
by jda
Summary: A sequel of sorts to "Oh Baby!" Someone's decided to play matchmaker. FINISHED!
1. Chapter 1

Hi everybody! I'm back! (at least for today, since I have a school holiday, and not too much homework {and truthfully, I missed writing fanfic!})  
  
Okay, so this is a sequel of sorts to my old story "Oh Baby!" because I sort of left the ending hanging, and I wanted to finish it up. You'd have to read that to understand this story, though. This IS a W/S story! (Come on, there have to be more than about 5 shippers out there! Aren't there?!)  
  
No huge spoilers, probably only really opaque references to episodes, so anything is fair game.  
  
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"Sara!" Nick bellowed, "Maddie's tickling me again!" He came rushing out of the living room followed by a hysterically giggling two-and-a-half-year- old.  
  
"Hey munchkin!" Sara exclaimed to her energetic toddler, as she scooped her up, and thereby making it possible for Nick to breathe easier for a little while. "Do you want Uncle Nicky to stop visiting you?"  
  
"No," Maddie answered innocently, shaking her head, making her blond curls swing into her face and Sara's.  
  
"Then you have to stop tickling him," Sara chastised. She was about to say more when her doorbell rang. "Guess that's Warrick or Cath," she said instead.  
  
Unwisely putting Maddie down within five feet of Nick, she turned and headed down the hallway to the front door. Brushing her hair out of her face, she opened it and was greeted by a large helium balloon with an almost garish smiley face on it. "Agh! god, Warrick, what is that?" she demanded as soon as she was able to breathe again. Any answer or explanation that he was about to give was cut short by Nick's exclamation of, "Sara, you daughter is attacking me again!" She and Warrick laughed mercilessly at Nick's predicament.  
  
"You know Stokes," Warrick began as he stepped in the door and put the balloon in a corner, "It's all mind over matter. If you think that the kid can tickle you, then you'll be going insane till the day you die, but if you don't think like that, she'll just leave you alone after awhile, especially if she can't get you to squirm like you are now." Nick literally proved his point by twisting comically to get away from the little fingers that were poking his side.  
  
"Maddie," Sara warned using the sternest voice she could muster against this sweet little girl, "What did I say about tickling Uncle Nicky?"  
  
"I could?" Maddie answered, trying to play innocent.  
  
"We could always get a 'cease and desist' court order," Warrick joked as Sara went into the kitchen to check on their dinners.  
  
Maddie seemed to just realise that Warrick was standing at the door, and screamed, "Daddy!" as she ran up to him.  
  
"Hey Maddie! I brought you that balloon that you liked," Warrick replied, as he gestured into the corner of the foyer, to cover up the slight blush that was rising in his cheeks, and hoping to high heaven that nobody would notice. Unfortunately for him, Maddie did.  
  
"Why you cheek pink?" she asked in her carefully structured attempt at speech.  
  
"Um, no reason," he replied, trying to find a way to reiterate that he wasn't her father, adoptive or otherwise.  
  
"What was that?" Sara asked, poking her head out of the kitchen's doorway.  
  
Warrick just shook his head, but Nick, taking extreme pleasure out of the fact that Maddie's attention was diverted elsewhere replied, "Nothing; just my man being embarrassed from being called 'Daddy'. Never thought I would see the day."  
  
Apparently, Sara didn't think of it as "just" anything. She walked out of the kitchen and walked up to Maddie who was still in Warrick's arms. "Honey," she asked, addressing her daughter, "What did we say about calling Uncle Warrick 'Daddy'?"  
  
"Don't know," Maddie said, feigning innocence, although if the fact that she was burying her head in Warrick's shoulder was any indication, she was obviously trying, and failing utterly, to lie.  
  
Nick was confused by Warrick and Sara's ongoing battle to teach Maddie about who wasn't to be called what. "Why don't you guys just give it up? I mean, she's obviously going to be calling Warrick 'Daddy' from here on out."  
  
"You do not know my parents," Sara replied wearily. "If Maddie called every man she met 'Daddy', we wouldn't have a problem, but since she doesn't, if my parents ever heard that, they'd jump to conclusions, and Warrick would probably dig a hole for us to bury ourselves in."  
  
"I said I was sorry," Warrick muttered, sounding like he was borderline complaining. "I didn't know it would turn into a fiasco."  
  
The doorbell rang again. As Sara opened the door, Maddie ran unsteadily to the door, and greeted them with, "Uncle Geg! Auntie Catty! Uncle Grum!" (a/n translation: Uncle Greg, Auntie Cathy, Uncle Grissom)  
  
Warrick and Sara gave Nick identical pointed glances that clearly said, "See? She doesn't call everyone 'Daddy'." All he could do was hold up his hands in a gesture of surrender, although he did wonder if Warrick and Sara knew that they acted more and more similarly by the day.  
  
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"Hi, Sara," Mrs. Andrews greeted her, "Sorry we're so late, but the flight was delayed. Bad weather and bomb threats. Who knew how hard it was to get out of San Fran?" The frazzled looking woman absently brushed a strand of hair out of her face.  
  
"Yeah," Sara replied sympathetically, "It's like torture when the rain starts. Was there a wind storm too?"  
  
Mr. Andrew nodded, before shifting his weight to accommodate the heavy luggage that he was still holding. "And then there was a 'bomb threat'. Turned out to be a teenage boy who was commenting on his friend's ability to release natural gas, if you know what I mean."  
  
Sara nodded again, before moving out of the way and ushering Maddie's grandparents in.  
  
"Mr. and Mrs. Andrews," Warrick called as he walked down the hall, "How are you? Let me take your bags." Leaving them no time to answer, he picked up the heavy bags like they were pillows and dropped them off in the guest bedroom.  
  
The Andrews watched his retreating form in amazement before returning their attention to Sara, who ushered them into the living room. "So where's our little girl?" Mr. Andrews asked.  
  
"Fell asleep about an hour ago," Sara replied quietly, "She got tired from chasing Nick and Greg around trying to tickle them."  
  
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I only saw Warrick," Mrs. Andrews observed.  
  
"Yeah, well, Greg got called in to help with overflow from day shift, Nick's in the washroom, and Grissom and Cath had to pick up Lindsay from a friend's, but they'll be back."  
  
"And your parents?" Mrs. Andrews continued.  
  
"They should be arriving any minute now. Actually, they were supposed to be here a couple of hours ago." Sara replied, starting to look like a cross between panicked and confused.  
  
"Don't worry, Sar," Nick said, having heard the last part, "I don't think they high tailed it to Cancun." Turning to the others, he extended his hand, saying "Hi, I'm Nick Stokes, and I work with Warrick and Sara." The doorbell rang. "See, must be them now."  
  
Sara found Grissom, Catherine, Lindsay and her parents on her doorstep. "Look who we found waiting patiently by the door at your old place," Grissom said, "You're lucky Lindsay's friend lives in your old complex."  
  
"Mom! Dad!" Sara exclaimed, "I called you about ten times last week to remind you that I moved! I even gave you the address!" Rubbing her forehead, she continued, "Why didn't you call me? I had my cell on, my pager, and my home number hasn't changed!"  
  
By this time, everyone who was in the townhouse was at the door, including Maddie, having been awoken by the multitude of voices. Sara's parents both opened their mouths to reply to Sara's query, but were sidetracked by their granddaughter. Instead, Mr. Sidle bent down and said, "Come here sugar pie!" as Maddie came rushing into his arms. "So how come you're awake, Sugar?" he asked.  
  
"Daddy crashed the door!" she exclaimed, "and he said 'OUCH!' I laughed." By the time she finished her statements, she was practically yelling in excitement.  
  
"Maddie, shh," Sara warned, putting her fingers over her lips, trying to calm the excited toddler down before her neighbours complained that they were being disturbed in the early hours of the morning.  
  
"'Daddy?'" Mrs. Sidle echoed. Sara could literally hear the gears in her mother's head working, as her mother processed this meager amount of information.  
  
"Uh, yeah," Warrick answered, hoping to curtail any assumptions, "Maddie's going through this faze where she keeps calling me 'Daddy', but Sara and I are trying to teach her how to call me Uncle Warrick."  
  
"Ah, Wilbur, it really is good to see you!" Mr. Sidle proclaimed suddenly, making Warrick feel like there was an ulterior motive that he should be looking for.  
  
Warrick was about to open his mouth to protest his name change, but Sara caught his eye, warning him silently not to egg her parents on, and he promptly closed it again. This is exactly what everyone else saw, that is, everyone else except Sara's rather eccentric parents, who took this as an omen of sorts that their daughter would be getting married soon.  
  
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Please review, and yes, there will be about one more chapter! And no flames please! 


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews! And here is the second chapter!  
  
When Sara rolled over, she had to bite back a scream when Warrick's sleeping face came into view. After a few startled moments, she remember that all of her friends, minus Greg, had stayed the night, since they were all in various degrees of extremely tired the previous night. Her parents were sleeping soundly in her bedroom, and the Andrews were in the guestroom. Grissom, Catherine, Lindsay, Nick, Warrick and Sara were all camped out in the living room sleeping on blankets and thin foam camping mattresses. Maddie was the only one sleeping in her own bed in her own room. Trying to come up with a plan to get to the kitchen without waking anybody up, Sara rolled over on her other side and came face to face with the couch, as well as Nick's arm. Upon further circumspection, she realised that a feather was all it would take for him to fall off. Suddenly, Nick slipped off the sofa and fell on her. Although she had been making a rough calculation of his trajectory if he fell, she wasn't prepared for him to actually fall. This time she did scream, although it was muffled by Nick's backside in her face.  
  
The slight ruckus was enough for Warrick to wake up completely. He opened his eyes just in time to see Nick literally smother Sara and roll over facing him, with a bit of saliva making bids for freedom from the side of his mouth. "Cute," Warrick whispered to Sara, who he assumed was awake, judging from the noise she had just made.  
  
"Is he even awake?" Sara demanded, seeing how Nick hadn't moved since he fell and rolled.  
  
"Nope. Out like a light," Warrick replied. "How'd that happen?"  
  
"How'd what happen?" Sara whispered back, making her lowered voice sound harsher than she intended.  
  
"How Nick came to be a wall in between you and me and our little conversation."  
  
"He was hanging over the edge of the couch," Sara began as she tried to free her arm, which was pinned under Nick's side. "Can't get my arm out," she muttered. Warrick didn't say anything, just pulled Nick up enough for her to slip her arm out. "Thanks. Anyway, he looked like he was going to fall over, and I was thinking that a feather would be all it took. Who knew I had telekinetic powers?"  
  
The unexpected joke caused Warrick to let out a guffaw. Nick, who had somehow been able to continue to sleep during his free fall and roll, opened his eyes suddenly with a fairly loud yell. "Jeez, Warrick!" he yelled, "Way to scare a man!" He suddenly was subdued again, before he asked with slight trepidation, "Man, wasn't I sleeping on the couch?"  
  
"Yeah," Warrick replied simply, trying to convey to his friend that he thought he was being an idiot at that moment.  
  
"So how did I get to be here between you and the couch?" Nick asked, unaware that Sara was lying behind him.  
  
"Are you implying that I look like a couch, Nick?" Sara asked, hoping for a reaction. She got one in the form of Nick jumping nearly a mile in the air with a simultaneous turn.  
  
"Sara, what were you doing there? What is this? Torture Nick Morning?" Nick whined as he faced his other friend.  
  
"Something like that," Sara replied simply with a smirk. "And if I remember correctly, you were the one who fell on me."  
  
"I FELL on you?" Nick asked incredulously.  
  
"That would explain why you're not on the couch anymore," Grissom's groggy voice cut in.  
  
"Come on, Nick, you're paid to be observant at all times, remember?" Catherine's voice added.  
  
"Let me guess," Nick said irritably to no one in particular, "I woke up the entire house too."  
  
"I would have to say you woke us up," Mr. Andrews, wrapped in his bathrobe, said from the doorway that led to the hall, with a paternal smile on his face.  
  
"And you woke us up too sugarplum," Mrs. Sidle added from behind her husband who was now perched on the arm of the armchair.  
  
"Uncle Nicky in trouble?" Maddie asked as she took advantage of the situation and began tickling him again. Lindsay woke up then and took part in the laughter as they watched Nick try to gently pry the toddler off of him before he darted out of the room.  
  
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"Bye you guys! See you tomorrow night!" Sara called to Catherine, Lindsay, and Grissom. Turning around, she headed towards the washroom where Nick was currently hiding out. Knocking on the door, she called out, "You know, you can come out now. Maddie's grandparents took her to the park." She could have sworn that she heard Nick's relieved sigh from the other side of the door. The lock slid open and Nick's face greeted her.  
  
"Thank god," he said as he wiped imaginary sweat off his brow, "thought I was going to develop claustrophobia in there." When Sara smirked, he continued with a bewildered, "What? The bathroom is smaller than your average closet!"  
  
"No it's not," Warrick replied as he walked in from the living room. "And believe me, I know, since I had to measure all of them to get half of Sara's stuff into this place!"  
  
"Hey!" Sara exclaimed indignantly, "That stuff you were talking about was Maddie's, and you guys bought most of it!"  
  
"Point taken," Warrick conceded.  
  
"Anyway," Nick continued after looking vaguely amused by his friends' banter, "I have to go. Promised Mandy I'd meet her for a matinee movie at 11. Thanks for letting us stay the night Sara."  
  
As he made a move for the door, Sara decided to take advantage of the situation, and called out, "Nick, I hope you realise that it's already a quarter to eleven!" She and Warrick shared a laugh and a high five as they watched their friend run to his car and speed out of the visitors parking.  
  
Once the laughter died down, Warrick looked at his own watch, shook his head when he saw that it was only thirty minutes after nine, turned to Sara and said, "I hope you do know that that was a very cruel joke you played on Nick there." Sara just answered him with a smirk. Warrick flashed her a quick grin and continued, "Then again, somehow, I seem to take a certain sadistic pleasure in doing that to our best friend."  
  
Sara made a move to close the front door when the familiar voice called out, "Mommy!" And she saw Maddie running as fast as her little legs could take her. About two meters away from the front porch, she tripped on a crack and fell flat on her face. A wail reverberated through the complex. Sara and Warrick had started moving towards her the seconds before her foot caught the crack.  
  
Warrick picked the sobbing girl up and sat down on the porch steps cradling her gently while Sara asked her worriedly whether anything hurt a lot. After a few minutes of incoherent babbling, they were able to ascertain that all Maddie had done to herself was get a scraped knee and a loose tooth.  
  
While this mini-drama was unfolding, four pairs of parental eyes watched it with a critical eye. In all of their minds, they could not think of a better-suited family than this.  
  
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"You sure you don't want me to come with you to the dentist's?" Warrick asked for the tenth time in a matter of minutes.  
  
"I'm sure we'll be fine," Sara assured him, "Anyway, with the grandfathers and grandmothers coming too, she should be entertained long enough."  
  
"Okay, if you're sure. Call me if you need anything, okay?" Warrick repeated as he gathered up his things.  
  
"Yeah, don't worry, everything's going to be fine. Losing a baby tooth isn't a huge deal," Sara answered, "I'll see you tomorrow night?"  
  
"Yeah, guess so, "Warrick said, suddenly getting a feeling he couldn't explain, somewhere between loneliness and dismay. "But maybe we'll see each other before then. I don't know, take Maddie to the park again?"  
  
"Sounds good to me. Maddie would probably think the same," Mrs. Sidle said as she descended the stairs. Sara nearly gave herself a whiplash as she turned to face her mother who, until she spoke, had gone unnoticed by her.  
  
"Mom, were you eavesdropping on our conversation?" Sara asked suspiciously.  
  
"Maybe," was the obscure answer.  
  
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While Maddie took her nap and her parents and the Andrews were exploring the casinos and the rest of the Strip, Sara was trying to catch up on the latest forensics magazine that she had been meaning to read for the past week. Her phone rang. "Hello?" she asked.  
  
"Hey Sara, it's Warrick."  
  
She was pretty surprised. Warrick rarely called her at home unless Grissom told him to bring her in on a case. "Don't tell me. 419 at some hotel?" Judging by the silence on the other end of the line, he was taken by surprise at her question.  
  
"Actually, Sara, no, I wasn't calling about work," he replied after some time. For some reason, she felt a slight fluttering in her stomach, a fluttering of expectation that she couldn't quite explain. "Um, I was wondering if I could stay over at your place for a few days, 'cause my entire building's being fumigated to get rid of this bug problem and . . . well. . . yeah," Warrick stuttered towards the end.  
  
"Well, sure, of course you can," Sara answered promptly, "but I do have to warn you that it's pretty jam packed in here right now. And I'm not too sure how well you can survive hovering grandparents, but sure, you're welcome to stay." After thinking about the situation for a little bit longer, she added, "I guess Nick doesn't have any space at his place huh?"  
  
"Huh? Oh! Yeah, yeah, he's trying to impress Mandy or something like that," Warrick answered hastily, "So, it's all good with you?" At Sara's affirmative, he continued, "Okay, thanks, um, I'll be there in about an hour?"  
  
As soon as they hung up, Warrick dialed another familiar number. "Hey, Nick, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"  
  
"No man, what's up?" Nick asked, wondering if his friend was going to challenge him to a game of pickup basketball.  
  
"I've got this favour I've got to ask you," Warrick replied vaguely, believing that the fewer people he had to involve, the better.  
  
"Shoot."  
  
"If Sara asks you why I couldn't stay over at your place, can you make something up, you know, give her a reason why you wouldn't want me over for a couple of days?"  
  
Nick physically pulled the phone away from his face and stared at it for a couple of seconds before replacing it to his ear. "Okay, I can do that man, but why d'you want me to do that?"  
  
Warrick sighed. He started pacing his modest sized apartment trying to figure out how to tell his friend what he needed to know without telling him everything. "Listen, man, it's like this: my place is going to be fumigated top to bottom over the next week or so, and, I don't know, I just have this sense of home at Sara's place." When he didn't get a response, he decided to elaborate a bit more. "What I'm trying to say is, I like going over to Sara's, and I don't want to make it look like I purposely went there, just so I can be there. Am I making sense?"  
  
"No, Rick, you don't make any sense," Nick repeated, "but that's okay, I get the general idea. No one makes sense when they're in love."  
  
"Hey!" Warrick protested, "I just said that I like going over to Sara's. I never said anything about love!"  
  
"Didn't have to." And with the final word, Nick hung up his end of the phone call.  
  
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Mrs. Sidle was given a pleasant surprise when she opened the door. On the doorstep stood Warrick Brown holding a duffel bag and a backpack. The wheels in her head began turning at a furious rate. "Moving in now, are we?" she asked pleasantly, like he was a Girl Guide selling cookies. Warrick's eyes bugged out at what she was implying.  
  
"Mom? Who's at the door?" Sara's voice called out from what Warrick thought was the direction of the bathroom.  
  
"A certain young man with chocolate coloured skin and grey-green eyes to match," her mother answered with a gleeful little clap that she tried to suppress, but didn't get past Warrick's observational skills.  
  
"WHO?!" Sara asked again, obviously having no clue who her mother was referring to.  
  
"Come in, come in," Mrs. Sidle said as she waved Warrick in the door. "Make yourself at home. I'll get my daughter to get out of the bathroom. Giving our little sugar cake a bath. I can always do that, can't I?" Before Warrick could get a word in edgewise, she was off again, reminding him of Sara when she was running with a case.  
  
"I knew it was hereditary," he muttered to himself as he put the bags down and plopped down on the couch.  
  
"What's hereditary?" Sara asked, walking into the living room, as she unsuccessfully tried to push the wet hair out of her eyes.  
  
He was taken aback by the waves of emotions that went through him in the few seconds that he looked directly at her. She was half wet, most likely from Maddie splashing the bath water around, and generally looked like she hadn't seen the light of day for a month. Yet, despite all that, she looked more beautiful to him at that point then she ever had before. He tried to answer, but no sound came out of his mouth.  
  
Sara was extremely tired, brushed off his silence and just waved off her question. "Never mind, you'll probably tell me again later." She made her way to the couch and dropped like a stone beside him. "So, how long do you think you're going to be staying?" she asked non-threateningly. After a few moments' contemplation, she added, "And where are you going to sleep?"  
  
"Um, I might be staying for the next week," Warrick said sheepishly. "And I can sleep anywhere you can make room for me. I don't want to impose or anything."  
  
"Well, you could have thought about that before you asked to stay over here!" Sara exclaimed jokingly. At his guilty face, she added, "War, I'm just joking!" and smacked him lightly on the arm to prove her point. "Anyway, I hear you can cook, so you can pay me back by helping me cook for this small army."  
  
"You have it all thought out, don't you Sidle?" Warrick exclaimed. Sara just nodded.  
  
Out in the hall, Mrs. Sidle also nodded her affirmative as she watched the interplay. "My husband doesn't call me Cupid for nothing!" she whispered to herself. It was going to be her life mission to set these two up.  
  
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And here's chapter 2 for you! There should be a couple more chapters, and then it's back to the school grind for me!  
  
Please review! 


	3. Chapter 3

Where is everyone??? I've only gotten 2 reviews! (Is my story that bad??? *sniff, sniff*) (Okay, so maybe everyone is just enjoying their Thanksgiving and Columbus Day weekend a little too much!)  
  
Taking Maddie to the park again was fun, although the little girl seemed a bit wary of the cracks in the sidewalk by then. Warrick was trying to convince her that getting an "under duck" on the swing was going to be a ton of fun. Sara watched them from the bench with a smile on her face.  
  
"Sara!" a familiar voice called.  
  
Sara whirled around and saw her friend Diana waving at her. At her side was her five-year-old daughter. "Di! What are you doing here?" Sara asked incredulously, knowing that her friend's family had moved out of Las Vegas and into Henderson.  
  
"Anna missed coming to this park, so we took a weekend family trip out to Vegas and here we are!" Diana exclaimed with a hug as her daughter ran off. After looking around for a while with a nostalgic smile on her face, Diana asked, "So what are you doing here? Just out for a 'get back to nature' walk?"  
  
Sara grinned, mainly because it sounded like something her parents would have said. "Naw, I'm not that type of girl. Maddie's playing in the park right now."  
  
Diana scanned the park and her face visibly blanched. "Sar," she asked almost hysterically, "Some man is taking your daughter!"  
  
Sara jumped up, her veins coursing with adrenaline. She was ready to run when she realised that Diana was talking about Warrick and how he was taking Maddie to the slides. She sat back down, even though her friend looked at her like she was nuts. "Don't worry, Di," she said, trying to calm the woman down before she decided to call the police. "That's Warrick."  
  
Diana's face literally lit up like a lightbulb. "Guess you found Mr. Right, huh?"  
  
"What? Oh. No." Sara stared at her friend with an incredulous look on her face as she tried to draw her thoughts into coherent speech.  
  
Diana opened her mouth to interrogate her friend some more, but was cut off by Maddie yelling, "Mommy! Look Daddy show me!"  
  
Sara focussed her attention on the little girl, who started climbing the slide's ladder unsteadily. Diana just sat there shell-shocked, silently mouthing the word daddy.  
  
Hysterical giggling brought Sara's friend out of her stupor. "Great job, Maddie!" Sara was praising her. A tall dark skinned man came over holding Maddie's little hand in his own. "Did you see how fast she went?" he asked with pride, "I told her that she was going as fast as a rocket!"  
  
"And I was too!" Maddie pronounced happily. "Daddy said I could."  
  
Diana managed to shake herself before they came any closer. "Di," Sara said, "This is Warrick, one of my friends from work. He's great with kids, and Maddie's no exception."  
  
"Yeah, Daddy's the greatest!" Maddie beamed with pride.  
  
"She means Uncle Warrick," Sara said quickly as an explanation, lest her other friend start getting things into her head from the numerous repetitions of "daddy". "But she keeps calling him 'Daddy' and we haven't been able to break the habit yet."  
  
"Maybe you should just let her be," Diana suggested, "Let her decide who to call Daddy." She desperately hoped that Sara would get the hint.  
  
"Uh, no, bad idea. My parents would keep on badgering me until-" Sara's ringing cell phone cut her off. "Sorry, got to take this. Probably my boss."  
  
"Grissom?" Warrick asked as he followed her off to the side incase he had to get any details.  
  
"So," Diana asked Maddie, "Why do you keep calling your Uncle Warrick 'Daddy'?"  
  
"Because," Maddie answered simply, as she climbed on to the bench and started swinging her little legs in the air.  
  
"Because, what?" Diana asked again.  
  
"Just because." Maddie answered again with a shrug, trying to convey her thoughts, "He's my . . . Daddy."  
  
"So you want him to be your Daddy?" Diana asked again. Maddie nodded her head vigorously.  
  
"I don't have a real Daddy," Maddie said, a little more subdued now. "But Daddy could be my Daddy."  
  
Diana's questions were cut short when Sara said, "Maddie, honey, we've got to go back home now. Grandma and Grandpa can't seem to make their lunches without burning something." Turning to her friend, she also invited them over for lunch, but warned her that the place was going to be crowded. Diana readily agreed and called her own child as she watched Warrick swing Maddie up onto his shoulders while having an animated conversation with Sara. The whole aura they radiated was one of a happy family, whether they realised it or not.  
  
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Maddie chatted on incoherently through the entire five-minute car ride. Sara and Warrick just glanced at each other and smiled as the little voice started singing, out of tune, some made up song about a turtle buying oranges while singing that ABC song or something like that.  
  
The second they were in the door, Mrs. Sidle and Mrs. Andrews accosted them. "Guess what my dears," Sara's mother exclaimed, "I made reservations at Galactica tonight for dinner!" She was followed in short order by Mrs. Andrews, who said, "Yes, I hear that restaurant is all the rage with you young people."  
  
Warrick and Sara exchanged confused looks before Warrick remembered that it was the old "Galaxy's Best Restaurant" that had a management change and upgrades. "It's that place that's now a weird cross between fine dining and dance club," Warrick told Sara who immediately got a look of understanding on her face.  
  
"Mom, you think there'll be enough room over there for Diana to come too?" Sara asked.  
  
"Of course dear, we have a lot of room over there," her mother told her. What she didn't say was that this was part of her master plan.  
  
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"Mom! Will you stop telling me what to wear?" Sara demanded after her mother pulled out yet another skirt from the depths of her closet.  
  
"I was only trying to be of help," her mother sighed, "But if you think that I'm not good enough to make my beautiful little girl the center of attention tonight, just tell me."  
  
Her guilt trip worked, as Sara said, "Okay, you can help. But I'm not wearing a skirt! There is no way you can make me wear a skirt."  
  
"Okay, so skirts are out," Mrs. Sidle said. Sara breathed a premature sigh of relief. "But I would have to say, this little red dress is very much in," her mother continued, holding up the dress that Catherine had given to her on Christmas as a sort of joke about her non-feminine style. It was made of some silky fabric with spaghetti straps, and was formfitting until it ended mid calf and flared just a tiny bit, giving it a bit of a swish. Sara groaned, knowing that this was going to be an uphill battle with her mother.  
  
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Sara didn't have a clue why her parents and the Andrews wanted to go to the restaurant fifteen minutes earlier than the rest of them, but she just wrote it off to being old. Diana had to take a rain check on dinner when Anna suddenly got a stomachache. Greg was babysitting Maddie. She still wasn't too sure how her mother persuaded her to get all dressed up though.  
  
Nick had picked Warrick up about an hour earlier to lend him a dress shirt, since he hadn't packed any in his temporary move to Sara's place. Warrick was then going to pick her up after he and Nick finished squabbling over which shirt he could borrow.  
  
Warrick glanced at his watch again, hoping that Sara was in a good mood and wouldn't fillet him for being five minutes late to pick her up. He rang the doorbell and steeled himself for verbal attack because he was late. He wasn't prepared when she opened the door, however. Instead, he was simply blown away at how glamorous she looked in the red dress and sandals with three-inch heels. // Stop staring! // his mind screamed, but he couldn't heed its command and just stood there like a statue.  
  
Sara blushed at the unwonted attention she was receiving. "You know, my parents are probably going to call the police if we're not at Galactica in the next little while," she said gently, trying to break him out of his reverie.  
  
"Uh, yeah, yeah, we should get going," Warrick replied as best he could. Sara turned her back on him to lock the door, and he was given a very inviting view of her backside. // Damn, she's fine! // his mind raved. //Shut up! // the other side of his head cried, //she's your friend. Friends don't think of each other that way! // //True, // the other side agreed, // but you don't think of her as a friend anyway. You know that she's more to you than a friend.//  
  
"Warrick, Warrick!" Sara called as she tried waving a hand in front of his face. When his eyes focussed again on her face, she continued, "You blanked out on me again. You sure you're feeling okay?" He just nodded. "Okay, then, let's go!" Sara exclaimed, "But I'm driving."  
  
******************************************************* "Hi, reservation for 'Sidle' for six people at seven? My parents may already be here, I'm not too sure," Sara said to the hostess at the front of the restaurant.  
  
"Sidle . . . Sidle . . ." the hostess muttered as she scanned the reservation sheet, "Ah! Here we go, but this is a reservation for two, not six." She looked up expectantly at them. Sara and Warrick just looked at each other in confusion.  
  
"Well, her mother made the reservation this afternoon, said we were going out for dinner," Warrick said, trying to clear the situation up somewhat.  
  
"Well isn't that what you two are doing here?" the hostess asked blankly.  
  
"Yeah, but they were supposed to be with us," Sara replied, wrinkling her forehead in concentration, trying to think where the four older people might have gone.  
  
The hostess was growing slightly irritated by their confusion, so she said, "Look, you're the last people whose names are on the list. This is probably your reservation. If your parents come, we'll just add some tables to yours, and if not, well then, enjoy the evening." They decided to just agree with the woman before they were thrown out.  
  
They were led to a quiet corner of the restaurant, where the only light was what was cast of by flickering candles and oil lamps. Warrick, remembering to be a gentleman, pulled out Sara's chair for her. Her smile of appreciation went straight to his heart.  
  
"So," Sara began. She seemed to run out of steam since she remained quiet after the single syllable she uttered.  
  
"So," Warrick repeated, "Guess your parents and the Andrews are either lost, extremely forgetful, or they set us up."  
  
"Set us up on what?" Sara asked as she fiddled with her napkin. Warrick opened his mouth to answer, when she waved for him to stop. "Oh my god," she gasped, "They set us up on a date!" She buried her face in her hands, in embarrassment. "Oh, god, this is humiliating!"  
  
"Going on a date with me is humiliating?" Warrick asked with equal parts humour and horror.  
  
"No, no, no," Sara replied instantly, "Not going on a date with you, that's okay. It's going on a blind date set up by my own mother, and not figuring it out sooner." Her head once again disappeared into her hands and she groaned for another few minutes while Warrick tried to fight back a chuckle.  
  
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Please review! (Please? Do I have to get on my knees? {pouts}) 


	4. Chapter 4

Any uneasiness that they may have felt when they first sat down to dinner quickly diminished within about ten minutes. By the time their plates came, Sara and Warrick were having a lively conversation ranging from their weirdest cases to whether they thought classical music was dead.  
  
"You're serious?" Warrick asked, as he took a bite of his pasta.  
  
"Yeah," Sara answered, taking a sip of water, "I don't think I have ever seen Grissom react that badly to a rat. I mean, the guy has spiders and pigs in formaldehyde all over his office."  
  
"And to think, I held Griss in such high esteem since nothing seemed to phase him," Warrick commented as he shook his head. "I guess it's time to find someone else to put on the pedestal. Grissom doesn't make the cut anymore," he added with a grin, which was returned immediately by Sara.  
  
"And who were you thinking of putting on this pedestal? Greg?" Sara teased.  
  
"No, his music alone takes him out of the running," Warrick quipped, " I was thinking that maybe you'd like the honour." Sara blushed furiously and got the 'cornered animal' look in her eye again. "Of course I could just do without the pedestal," he said quickly.  
  
"Yeah," Sara agreed uneasily.  
  
// Open mouth. Insert foot. // Warrick thought to himself. // Lay off on the flattery, man, // he told himself. // Sara's not used to it coming from you. //  
  
They finished the meal in silence, each brooding over the conversation they just had.  
  
Warrick couldn't take it anymore. They had been silent through the end of their meals, and through the entirety of dessert. He felt compelled to join the other couples on the dance floor, but he didn't want to leave Sara a pensive mess at the table either.  
  
"You want to dance?" Sara asked him quietly, slowly lifting her head so that their eyes met.  
  
"I'd love to," Warrick said without thinking. He stood up and held his hand out to her. To his relief, she took it and they made their way to the dance floor, which had couples swaying to the romantic music all night.  
  
Once they got to about the center of the floor, Warrick slowly and gently took Sara's right hand in his left and put his right hand halfway between her back and her side. He wondered if she was going to kick him for doing that without asking, but she didn't say or do anything except to lay her right hand on his shoulder and rest her arm on his.  
  
"You, know, Sar," Warrick said quietly after a while, "if techno is more your style, we could always hit another dance club."  
  
"What?" Sara asked distractedly, tearing her eyes from the spot on the wall over Warrick's shoulder and looking at him in confusion.  
  
"You're doing a very good impression of the 'robot' dance, Sar. I don't think I've seen anyone dance like they're going to be executioned the next day, before." He was taking a huge gamble. The likelihood that she would smile at his small crack was thousands of times smaller than the likelihood that she would glare at him and demand that they leave immediately. His stars must have been aligned, since she visibly relaxed and smiled at him.  
  
"Point taken," She said simply. She got an indecisive look to her face before it was replaced by one of resolution. She carefully slipped her hand out of Warrick's. For a minute, he thought that she was going to leave without him anyway, but instead, she slowly, almost tentatively, slipped her arms around his neck. "This okay?" she asked quietly.  
  
Warrick almost missed the question, but he did manage to answer. "It's fine with me if it's fine with you," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist.  
  
They danced like that until an extremely slow, extremely romantic song came on over the speakers. Warrick felt Sara shift from her current position, and he reluctantly removed his hands from her hips, thinking that she had had enough. To his surprise, she laid her head on his shoulder, pulled his arms around her again, and continued dancing.  
  
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And this is my fluffy little chapter. Hope you enjoyed, and please review, even if it's just to say hi! 


	5. Chapter 5

You've probably noticed some weird looking signs () and those were supposed to stand for thoughts, but since ff.net wouldn't work that way, I've had to try something else. So, these // are supposed to indicate their thoughts.  
  
It was the early hours of the morning by the time they got back to Sara's house. Seeing as Maddie had preschool the next day and the elder Sidles and Andrews were planning to hit the casinos on their last day in Vegas, they figured that they could sleep during the day to get them ready for their night shift.  
  
"Hey," Sara said suddenly ask they walked in the door in to the darkened hallway, "I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm going to be sleeping tonight. Want to watch some old movies, maybe?"  
  
"Depends on what movie we'd be watching," Warrick replied.  
  
"I don't know, the digitally remastered version of 'The Wizard of Oz'?" Sara suggested jokingly.  
  
"We're off to see the Wizard! The wonderful wizard of Oz!" Warrick sang softly in what sounded like a choked up falsetto. "You have that?"  
  
"No." Sara didn't say anything more as she turned the corner. She stopped and walked back to where Warrick was standing. "But I do have 'Gone with the Wind'." She looked puzzled for a second before answering, "Or maybe it's at Catherine's house. Lindsay needed it for a project on the Civil War."  
  
"So, in other words," Warrick summarized, "you actually don't know what movies you have in your house." He walked into the living room shaking his head. "I think we're going to have to get you out more Sidle."  
  
"Yeah, people have been telling me that for the past ten years," Sara said with a touch of nostalgia. Suddenly remembering that they were still in their clothes from dinner, she continued, "I'm going to get changed okay? You can use the bathroom if you want."  
  
"Why would I want to use the washroom? I don't think anybody'd watch me," Warrick asked in bewilderment.  
  
"Well, if you don't mind doing a striptease for my mother," Sara huffed, "Be my guest." She pointed to the doorway where, sure enough, stood the Sidle matriarch, trying in vain to blend in with the woodwork.  
  
"Point taken," Warrick muttered as he gathered up his sleeping clothes and headed for the bathroom.  
  
As soon as she heard the click of the washroom door, Sara whirled around to confront her mother. "Where were you for dinner tonight?" she demanded.  
  
"At 'Galatians'," he mother answered simply, "We figured you two wouldn't want to hang around a bunch of old fuddy-duddies like us."  
  
"You set us up!" Sara hissed, her voice sliding into a higher register.  
  
"No," Mrs. Sidle corrected with a slight condescending air, "you set yourselves up. All I did was allow nature to take its course."  
  
"By falsely telling us that we were all going to have dinner at Galactica!" Sara stated.  
  
"No, what I said was, 'I made reservations.' I never said anything about who was going. You just assumed that on your own, my dear." Mrs. Sidle retorted smugly.  
  
"Arg! Mother!" Sara groaned as she gesticulated wildly, trying to convey her displeasure at her mother's ways.  
  
"So, how was dinner?" her mother asked sweetly, trying to get a reaction.  
  
Sara parried with a question of her own. "So why are you awake, mom?" she asked.  
  
"I was waiting up for my baby, of course!" the older woman said. At Sara's incredulous look, she added, "What? Just because you're 33 doesn't mean you're still not my little girl. Come on, you used to tell me everything that happened in your day. Humour me?"  
  
// Only my mother could guilt trip me enough to spill my guts, // Sara thought. "Okay," she said slowly, trying to think of what to say. "I do have to admit, the restaurant was great." Her mother nodded encouragingly. "And we talked about lots of stuff, and then we danced."  
  
"How long?" Mrs. Sidle demanded with excitement.  
  
"Were we dancing?" Sara asked. When her mother nodded, she thought back, trying to place a specific period of time on it. "Well, we started dancing at about 8:30, and we left when they had to close. So about two and a half hours?"  
  
"Honey, I hate to break it to you, but it's nearly two in the morning. Where were you?" her mother asked gently.  
  
"Oh! We went to this 24 hour coffee shop, and we talked some more after that." After having said that, Sara proceeded to tell her mother every detail of her evening out, as the maternal question period always made her do unwittingly.  
  
Warrick spent a little more time than he had expected in the washroom. When he walked out, he heard Sara's voice drifting out from the living room, saying, "I don't know what to make of it mom, I think I'm falling for him." That statement certainly piqued his attention.  
  
"Well, if this is the way you feel about Wilbur-"  
  
"Warrick," Sara interrupted.  
  
"Wilbur, Warrick, whatever," Mrs. Sidle continued, unfazed by the interruption, "then you should tell him. Don't you remember what I used to always tell you? 'Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all'?"  
  
"Yeah, but mom," Sara whined, "sometimes it's, I don't know, easier to just not love and lose, you know? I mean, the last time I opened up to a guy, tried to have a relationship, he was using me to cheat on his girlfriend."  
  
// Hank. // Warrick recalled instantly, // The bastard, broke Sara's heart and her trust. // His vindictive thoughts were cut short by Mrs. Sidle's words of motherly wisdom.  
  
"Sugar baby," she said gently, "Hank was a rotten apple in a huge basket of apples. You pluck them out first and you're left with all the good apples. Your Warrick is one of those good apples."  
  
"Really?" Sara asked in a small insecure voice that he never heard her use ever before.  
  
"Really," Mrs. Sidle repeated with conviction. "Now, since I know that you made it home safely, I'm going to bed now. I'll see you in the morning, okay, baby?"  
  
"Okay," Sara echoed in the same small voice.  
  
Warrick was rooted to the spot and didn't even try to get out of Sara's mother's way as she walked out of the living room. She smiled, lay a parental hand on his shoulder, and said, very quietly, "Warrick, be good to my baby, okay?" without breaking stride. He nodded at her request.  
  
Sara was curled up on the couch wearing her old Harvard sweatshirt and what appeared to be yoga leggings. He figured that sometime in her conversation with her mother she had changed. "Hey Sar," Warrick said quietly. When she acknowledged his presence with a smile and a beckoning to sit beside her, he continued, "I heard part of your conversation with your mother."  
  
She got the cornered animal look in her eye again. "Which part?" she asked nervously.  
  
"The last part," Warrick admitted. He half expected her to burst into tears or run out of the room. Instead she just stared at him for a few seconds.  
  
"Oh. Um, well, you see, my mom has this tendency to pry, so I usually make up stories so that she'll get off my case. Sorry if I involved you in my little conspiracy. Uh . . ." Judging from her babbling, Sara was trying to lie.  
  
"Sara, Sara," Warrick said, raising a hand to try and calm her down. "You don't have to explain. I get it. But it's too bad that what you said wasn't true."  
  
Sara stared blankly at him for a good half a minute, before she said, "Are you . . ." and couldn't finish her thought.  
  
"Have you ever taken risks, Sara?" Warrick asked. She shrugged. He continued, "You, know, right after you came and investigated me, I stopped placing bets. The only time I was in a casino was when there was a crime scene. But you know what? There's still this gambler in me that wants to take a gamble right now. 'Cause I know you Sara. I know it's impossible for you to lie. I know that you weren't making up a story to get your mother off your back." Sara looked down, suddenly fascinated by the couch fabric's patterns. Warrick reached out and pulled her chin up, so that they were looking each other in the eye. "The feeling, it's mutual." He told her simply. He sighed. "Sara, god, I love you so much."  
  
"You . . . you . . ." Sara couldn't get any more words out, instead, she just leaned in for a long, slow kiss that left her lips tingling and on fire. They spent the rest of the night talking, only interrupting the flow of words with a lingering kiss or touch.  
  
The sun was just making its glorious ascent into the sky, when she finally was able to form the words that had been running through her heart the entire night. "I love you too, Warrick."  
  
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Please review! (and no flames about my shippage choices please!) 


	6. Chapter 6

He didn't know when they fell asleep, but Warrick was awakened by the little voice crying, "Daddy!" with glee. He shifted to the side to better face the little girl who was running at him. He stopped, however when he heard a groan come from beside him. He looked down on Sara's sleeping form, a fond smile came to his face, as she tried to burrow her head deeper into his chest as she slept on. Putting a finger to his lips, he pointed to Sara to tell Maddie to be quieter, and she instantly was silent.  
  
"Hey, Maddie," he whispered to the toddler, "how did you sleep last night?"  
  
"I saw Mommy and Daddy mash mouth!" she exclaimed. "Gramma made me sleep after."  
  
Sara groaned again, and Warrick just had a feeling it didn't have anything to do with trying to stay asleep. As he was trying to find a reason to get the girl to leave them alone for a couple of minutes, Mr. Sidle called from another part of the town house, looking for his granddaughter.  
  
"Is she gone yet?" Sara muttered thickly as she slowly lifted her head so that they made eye contact.  
  
Warrick could barely contain the chuckle that was surfacing when he saw her appearance. Her hair was tangled as a result of sleeping on it, and the makeup that she forgot to remove the night before was noticeably smudged. As he smoothed down her hair, Warrick answered, "Yeah, your dad wanted to do something with her before they left."  
  
Sara continued right on top of his statement. " Did I hear right?" she asked, "Did she actually say that she saw us 'mash mouths'?" He nodded once. She groaned again.  
  
"Sara, dear," Mrs. Andrews called as she walked into the living room, "what time do you think we should be at the airport?" Seeing them lying on the couch in a somewhat intimate fashion, she just turned around wordlessly and walked back to the kitchen in embarrassment.  
  
They just looked at each other and laughed. They were soon joined by more laughter from the kitchen.  
  
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As they walked into the lab together, Warrick thought back on how Sara didn't seem to want to shy away from the fact that they were in a newfound relationship. And wonder of wonders, she was actually holding onto his hand as they walked. After her parents left, and Maddie was at preschool, they were finally able to take over the master and guest bedroom respectively. They'd agreed that they would take it slow and let the relationship evolve with time, since they weren't in any rush to go anywhere.  
  
"Hey guys!" Nick began, "we've got a new case at the Mirage . . ." he trailed off when he saw their joined hands. "Do you know something that I don't know?" he asked coyly.  
  
"Isn't it supposed to be, 'I know something you don't know,' Nick?" Sara rebutted with her trademark smirk.  
  
"Maybe," Nick replied, "but I'm taking an artistic license on it."  
  
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After a night of running around in circles, chasing their metaphorical tails, the entire team was beat.  
  
"I cannot wait to go to sleep," Nick complained.  
  
"Can't agree with you more," Warrick replied as he pulled open his locker. A card fell out of it. Thinking it was from Sara for some reason, he opened it. "GREG!" he bellowed.  
  
"Man, what is it?" Nick asked curiously.  
  
"Nothing, just Greg's dirtier version of 'Sara and Warrick sitting in a tree'," Warrick said in exasperation.  
  
"K-I-S-S-I-N-G?" Nick asked with a little smirk that made Warrick suspect that his friend had been in on the prank.  
  
"Yeah, K-I-S-S-I-N-G and a little extra," Warrick affirmed as he scanned the card again. "How does this stuff go around the lab so fast?" he asked in astonishment. He was about to tell Nick more, when a strangled yell came from Sara as she opened her locker.  
  
"Oh, Greg is so going to be dead when I get my hands on him!" She yelled as she held a sheet of paper away from her like it had anthrax on it.  
  
"Uh, Sar, correct me if I'm wrong," Nick said, "but why would you kill him over a piece of paper?" She didn't answer him in words, just turned it around and on it were her and Warrick's superimposed faces on what at one point may have been a lingerie ad. "Okay, never mind," Nick conceded. "Looks like Greg and Archie need more stuff to do around here." Again he was taken aback at how identical Warrick and Sara's patented glares were.  
  
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Only one more chapter! I do realise this is short, but I think my muse decided to take a vacation too! I'm seriously running out of ideas! 


	7. Chapter 7

"Guess who," Warrick whispered as he placed his hands over Maddie's eyes. He was extremely thankful once again that Sara had given him a key to her place, so that Maddie didn't have to answer the door.  
  
"Daddy Warrick!" she squealed. He felt his lips curve up into a smile. They had finally found a compromise with Maddie to stop calling him by a title that he was not. Yet. But if his plan worked out perfectly, any and all precedents were going to be out the window.  
  
"Warrick!" Sara stated in mild surprise as she came down the stairs. "What are you doing here?" She held Maddie's sweater in one hand and a hairbrush in the other, and she looked decidedly out of place in the front foyer.  
  
"Well," he started, "Since Grissom made us work overtime on our day off, he said we could take today off instead. He even promised to watch Maddie for us."  
  
"Why would he watch Maddie for us?" Sara repeated in confusion.  
  
"Don't tell me you've already forgotten!" Warrick exclaimed in mock horror, as he wrapped his arms around Sara's shoulders and rested his chin on the top of her head, "Yesterday, when Grissom called us in, was our one-year anniversary. Remember?"  
  
"Oh!" she blurted out as she suddenly remembered. "Really?" she asked in disbelief.  
  
"Yeah," Warrick stated simply, feeling a smirk beginning to form. "And I thought you had a great memory, being able to recite stats for retrievable DNA to us?"  
  
"I only remember the important things," Sara said by way of defense. "Dates aren't what I consider important. Take our first kiss. Now that was important. I know what's important, believe me."  
  
"You do, do you?" Warrick challenged as he bent his head down to get a better angle with her lips. Sara gave a soft moan at the contact.  
  
"Ew! Gross!" Maddie cried as she screwed up her face. That certainly brought them back to reality.  
  
"Okay, kiddo," Warrick said, as he rubbed his hands together, "Why don't you get ready so that you can go to Uncle Grissom's for a while?"  
  
" 'Kay!" Maddie agreed, "You think he'll let me see his bugs and butterflies?"  
  
"I'm sure he will," Sara promised. They laughed slightly as they watched the eager little girl run up the stairs as fast as her small legs could go.  
  
"She's precocious, you know that, right?" Warrick asked, still looking at the stairs in fond amusement.  
  
"No kidding," Sara replied, "The first six years of a child's life are the most crucial to development. I mean, this is the time when their personalities are being formed. And considering she hangs out with you, me and the rest of the crime lab most of the time, I'm not surprised."  
  
"See, this is what I mean about you repeating things word for word, but you can't remember our anniversary date. I'm hurt." Warrick teased as he lay a hand over his heart.  
  
"I'm just not good with dates," Sara said, "but I am good with a few other things." She lay her hand over his.  
  
"Mommy!" Maddie protested from the top of the stairs. "What're you doing?"  
  
"She's starting to sound like a teenager already," Sara muttered under her breath to Warrick. "I'd hate to see what she's actually like when she's sixteen." Warrick nodded sympathetically in agreement, before helping Maddie tie her shoelaces.  
  
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"How come I never knew this park was so beautiful?" Sara asked rhetorically.  
  
"Uh, probably because you never see it during the day, since you're sleeping, and people seem to be getting killed here at night?" Warrick suggested. He easily moved out of the way of her hand as she tried to swat him. "What am I now?" he asked, "A fly?" Sara just laughed at him. He loved the sound of her laugh, among many other things.  
  
"So why did we come here?" Sara asked as she slipped her arm around his waist. He placed his arm across her shoulders as well.  
  
"Well, I was thinking along the lines of having a picnic," Warrick replied. Noticing Sara's questioning look, he continued, "Yeah, I know, no picnic basket. I got Cath to set it up for us over there," he pointed across the field where trees shaded a fairly large area. "She should be waiting."  
  
"So how much did it take to get her in on your little plan?" Sara asked in amusement, knowing that it was very difficult to persuade Catherine into doing anything.  
  
"Not much, actually," Warrick said mysteriously, "I just promised to do something later."  
  
"With her?" Sara demanded, suddenly feeling terrified and jealous at the same time.  
  
"No, no, no," Warrick replied quickly, trying to alleviate her fears. He knew that it made Sara feel justifiably threatened when the lab rumor that he and Catherine were an item on the side was brought up. "I promised her that I'd do something, but not with her. I prefer you more than anything else in the world, thank you very much."  
  
Sara blushed. "You're such a sweet-talker," she commented.  
  
"Yeah, been taking some lessons from Stokes," Warrick joked. "Wanted to impress you and all." This time he didn't try to avoid her swat.  
  
True to his word, there was a glorious-looking picnic waiting for them under the shade of a large oak, with Catherine guarding it like a formidable dragon.  
  
"Hey Cath," Sara said by way of greeting. "This looks great, thanks so much!"  
  
"Hey Sara," she responded. "Guess I'm not needed here anymore, huh?"  
  
"Thanks again, Cath," Warrick also said.  
  
As they were waving goodbye to each other, Catherine seemed to remember something else. "Hey Warrick!" she called. When she had his attention, she continued, "You better go through with it today, or else you're doing my paperwork for the next week!"  
  
"Gotcha," Warrick called back simply. By this time, Sara was getting extremely curious, and slightly irked.  
  
"What am I missing?" she asked somewhat irritably.  
  
"Nothing," Warrick told her. She opened her mouth to argue or tell him off, or both. He held up his hand to prevent her from starting. "But I promise you that you'll find out later, okay?" Sara decided to just give up and be patient.  
  
Despite her annoyance, Sara actually found herself enjoying their little picnic, despite the fact that they accidentally spilled the pop, and had to move to a less ideal location in order to keep the ants away, and despite the birds that at one point tormented them as they made dives for the bread. When Warrick brought out the champagne and strawberries, she nearly laughed hysterically.  
  
"I don't see what's so funny," he commented, "I mean, it's just champagne . . . I mean, white wine champagne. That's the politically correct term, isn't it?" She just kept on laughing.  
  
"Some squirrels are probably going to steal the strawberries or knock over the bottle," Sara gasped between fits of leftover giggles.  
  
"Don't think so," Warrick dead panned, " I made a deal with them to leave us alone." Sara's laughter was infectious and he ended up laughing with her for about five minutes before they could calm down enough to enjoy the delicacies.  
  
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They had been ambling through the park for a couple hours, when Warrick saw the designated bench, and saw that it was time to make his move. The sun was just beginning to set.  
  
"Hey, Sar," he said as casually as he could, though he was pretty certain that she could probably feel his heart beating faster, since she was flush with his side. "You want to sit down over there?" He pointed to the bench.  
  
"Sure," she answered without making a big deal out of it. She sat down, but Warrick remained standing, and she was wondering why. "You're not going to sit down?" she asked him curiously. She was certain that he was blushing, and he just generally looked like he wanted to run away, but something was compelling him to stay rooted to the spot.  
  
"Yeah, in a minute," he replied distractedly. "Hey, Sara, can I ask you something?"  
  
"Shoot," she said, feeling that this was when she would finally find out his secret.  
  
It took her a minute to register that he had gotten down on one knee. Time seemed to slow as she put her hand to her mouth in shock. "Sara," Warrick said clearly, though quite softly, "will you marry me?" A few flashs went off to the side, but they both ignored it.  
  
"Yes," Sara said without hesitation, or even thought. When she told Warrick earlier that day that she only remembered important events, she was sure this was one of them, since her mind memorized every detail as he slipped the simple, yet elegant engagement ring shakily onto her finger, and then enveloped her in a tight hug.  
  
"Thank god," Warrick whispered into her hair, "I don't think I could see life without you and Maddie in it."  
  
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"Hey guys!" Archie called out from the AV lab, "Can you come check this out?" Sara walked over intrigued, while Warrick tagged behind, already knowing what Archie was going to show.  
  
"Oh my god!" Sara gasped as she picked up the photo he handed to her. On it was the immortalization of Warrick's marriage proposal to her the day before at the park bench against the backdrop of the setting sun's fiery golds and pinks.  
  
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I suppose I'm going to have to stop there. I'm guessing that you could make the rest up yourselves, if you wanted to. I hope you enjoyed the story, and my muse was driving, I was only along for the ride!  
  
Thanks again (SO MUCH) to MissyJane (who always reviews!), Nepeace, J9 (thanks for looking over my essay too!), cRaZyPiXiE, CSI_Sammie, elle9, Emmy, csifan, Catherine Willows-Grissom, MHP, and aglea, and anyone else who may review right after I post this, for reviewing. It meant a lot to me!  
  
And now, I must make my exit yet again from the fanfic world, and go back to the evil world of school until the Christmas break. See ya all then! 


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